Hundreds of dangerous items are being sold on several online stores -including Amazon Marketplace,eBay and Etsy,Which? has said.
The consumer group said potentially dangerous products that could suffocate young children,electrocute users and even cause house fires are being sold through online marketplaces – even though they match products that have been declared dangerous by the product safety regulator.
A tool developed by Which? quickly found hundreds of products for sale that matched those previously reported as unsafe by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) through a simple Google image search.
On average,the products found for sale had been reported nearly six months earlier.
Saws,baby clothes and more – the list goes on (Pictures: Which?)
Toys,baby gear and more are affected (Picture: Which)Which? found nearly 800 products that were similar or identical to items flagged by the OPSS in the last year,98 per cent of which posed a ‘serious’ or ‘high’ risk to consumers.After testing 15 of these products,it was found all but one posed serious safety risks,with the remaining still failing to meet UK product safety regulations as it was illegally labelled.From wooden musical toys to 3-D printed dinosaurs,Which? uncovered a shocking variety of products marketed to very young children which contained potentially fatal choking hazards.Aside from toys,the consumer champion identified over 100 examples of baby sleeping bags that pose a serious risk of asphyxiation. Many of these sleeping bags include hoods which can cover a baby’s face and suffocate them. Other designs were missing arm holes – this can cause babies to slip down inside the bag and smother them.There were also 142 examples of a poorly designed aluminium ladder that has been repeatedly shown to collapse in safety tests.Meanwhile,knock-off cosmetic products,including wax warmers and nail steamers,pose a serious risk of electrocution. Innocent-looking everyday items such as heaters and bedside lamps contained faulty wiring that could lead to a house fire.
The aluminium ladder advertised online collapsed (Picture: Which?)Research by Which? in November 2025 found that 90 per cent of UK consumers have made purchases on online marketplaces in the last two years,and that 24 million people were regular users.Of those shoppers,at least 8.8 million have experienced harm from faulty,unsafe or fraudulent products bought from online marketplaces.As a consequence,people in the UK have lost their lives,homes and experienced serious physical harm as a result of dangerous products sold through online marketplaces.What the companies said in response
An Amazon spokesperson said: ‘We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws,regulations,and Amazon policies,and we proactively monitor our store for safety alerts and product recalls and remove relevant products and email customers who purchased them.
‘Safety alerts are specific to an individual products’ unique characteristics,including brand name,model number or design features,and our initial findings show that the vast majority of products highlighted by Which?’s research do not fall under the scope of these alerts.
‘Out of an abundance of caution,we temporarily delisted the products tested by Which? and will remove any non-compliant items identified by our investigation and further refine our controls.’
An eBay spokesperson said: ‘Consumer safety is a top priority for eBay. We have reviewed the listings identified by Which? and taken action where required,including removing items and notifying buyers where appropriate. We’re reviewing the wider marketplace to remove any identical listings.
‘We work diligently to prevent and remove unsafe product listings through seller compliance audits,block filter algorithms,AI-supported monitoring by in-house specialists,and close partnerships with regulators. Several of the unsafe listings highlighted by Which? had been removed or ended before the investigation was shared with eBay,showing how existing filters and monitoring systems work to reduce unsafe products on the site.’
Metro has reached out to Etsy for comment.
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